Larb gai (Thai minced chicken salad)
35 min · 46 g protein · 379 cals / serving
Juicy minced chicken tossed warm with lime juice, fish sauce, toasted chilli and a big handful of mint, cilantro and shallots, then showered with nutty toasted rice powder for crunch. It is sour, salty, hot and fresh all at once. Scoop it into crisp lettuce cups and eat it with cold cucumber, raw green beans and a little sticky rice, the way it is served in northeast Thailand.
Ingredients
Toasted rice powder
- 2 tbsp jasmine rice, uncooked sticky or jasmine rice
- 1 1/2 lb chicken breast, finely chopped or pulsed in a food processor
- 1/4 cup chicken broth, or water
- 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 5 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes, toasted chilli flakes, to taste
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh mint, leaves
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
To serve
- 2 heads butterhead lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 large cucumber, in thick slices
- 1/2 lb green beans, or long beans, trimmed
- 1/4 small head cabbage, in wedges
- 1 1/2 cups cooked cooked glutinous rice, sticky rice, or jasmine rice
Steps
- Make the toasted rice powder: toast the raw rice in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking, for 5–7 minutes until deep golden and nutty. Cool, then grind to a coarse powder in a spice grinder or mortar.
- Put the chicken and broth in a wide pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring and breaking it up, for 5–6 minutes until the chicken is white all through (165°F) and just moist. It should poach in its own juices, not brown.
- Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, chilli flakes and sugar, then the shallots, green onion, most of the mint and cilantro and 2 tablespoons of the rice powder. Taste: it should be sharply sour and salty with a clear chilli heat.
- Pile onto a plate, scatter with the rest of the herbs and rice powder and serve warm or at room temperature with the lettuce, cucumber, green beans, cabbage and sticky rice. Wrap spoonfuls in lettuce leaves to eat.
Good to know
Can I buy ground chicken instead?
Yes. Ground chicken made from thighs is juicier and richer, at about 68 instead of 80; chopping breast yourself gives a cleaner, meatier larb. Ground turkey works the same way.
Do I need the toasted rice powder?
It is what makes larb taste like larb: nutty, toasty and a little crunchy. Asian grocers sell it ready-made (khao khua), and it keeps for weeks in a jar.
How hot should it be?
Larb in Isan is fiercely hot. Two teaspoons of chilli flakes is medium; start with one if you are unsure and put the jar on the table.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 74
- Protein
- (51%)
- 9 g
- Fat
- (14%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (36%)
- 7 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 221 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1516 kcal goes into the pot and 2237 g of ingredients comes out as about 2060 g of food: 74 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.